SaveCircle is a decentralized, community-driven rotating savings platform built on StarkNet, offering a modern, transparent, and flexible alternative to traditional savings. https://savecircle.vercel.
Pitch: Collateralized Social Lending — A New DeFi Primitive
The Problem with Current DeFi & Traditional Lending
DeFi lending platforms rely on massive liquidity pools, often leading to high capital inefficiency.
Traditional lending requires credit history, collateral like land titles, or high interest rates, excluding millions of everyday people.
Community savings groups (Esusu) work, but trust is fragile: one bad actor can break the circle.
Our Innovation: EsusuDAO = DeFi Without Liquidity Pools
We are building a new DeFi primitive that merges:
Collateralized savings
Insurance-backed payouts
Reputation as credit
Instead of borrowing from a liquidity pool, members lend to each other using their own savings as collateral.
How It Works
Lock-to-Borrow Mechanism
You lock a percentage of your target payout (e.g., ₦40k locked for a ₦100k rent payout).
This lock qualifies you to receive funds earlier in the cycle.
Your locked amount = your savings + collateral.
Insurance Pool
All locked funds flow into an insurance pool.
If anyone defaults after an early payout, the pool covers the loss.
At the end of the cycle, compliant members reclaim their locked savings plus a share of leftover insurance — so being disciplined actually grows your savings.
Reputation as Collateral
Groups can set minimum reputation scores.
On-chain history of repayments = better creditworthiness = earlier access to funds.
Flexible Group Models
Public groups with open participation and reputation gates.
Private groups (invite-only), where you can choose whether locking is required.
Business Model
Insurance Pool: 1% of each contribution made will be sent to the insurance pool. at the end of the cycle it will be distributed back to members and 20% will be taken as contract fee if not used to cover missed contribution
Unused insurance pool balance is distributed back to members — turning risk into shared savings growth.
Example Use Case
Imagine you have a rent of ₦100k due next month.You lock ₦40k and join a group with ₦10k monthly contributions. You get your ₦100k payout upfront to pay rent.
If you default, your locked ₦40k protects the group.
If you stay complete, you not only get your payout, but you also reclaim your locked funds and your insurance bonus.
This creates a new kind of lending system where collateral is not property or cars it’s your own savings, reputation, and group trust.
Vision
1 We’re not building “just another Esusu app.”
2 We’re redefining DeFi by:
3Eliminating the need for giant liquidity pools.
4 Turning everyday savings into trustless collateral.
5 Converting reputation into a real financial asset.
This is community-powered lending without banks, without traditional credit, and without massive liquidity providers.That way, you’re not boxed into “just Esusu” but positioned as pioneering a new DeFi lending primitive.
During this hackathon, we transformed SaveCircle from idea to a live prototype on StarkNet, proving that community-powered savings can work in a decentralized and trustless way. We built and deployed the core rotating savings contract, where users join a group, lock an initial amount, and contribute funds on a schedule. Members take turns receiving lump-sum payouts giving early access to funds when they’re needed most, while ensuring everyone still saves and gets back their contributions. To make this reliable, we designed the liquidity lock system, which prioritizes payouts based on lock size and ensures participants cannot simply walk away. We also introduced the foundations of our dual safety nets: Insurance Pool funded by members to cover defaults so payouts remain fair. Penalty Pool funded by late or defaulting members, redistributing value to committed savers. These mechanisms create fairness, accountability, and real financial resilience something missing from both traditional banks and most DeFi savings models. Looking ahead, we’re expanding SaveCircle with: Reputation NFTs rewarding consistent savers with onchain trust badges. Targeted Saving Circles – for education, emergencies, or group goals. Flexible Group Options – including private trusted groups with no lock requirements. This hackathon proved more than technical progress it validated that SaveCircle can help communities or individuals access funds faster, save smarter, and protect each other against loss.